Padres Insider: A vote in favor of Petco Park changes

The shortening of the fences will not be turning Petco Park into a hitter-happy venue like Minute Maid Park in Houston, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia or Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.

Petco Park, however, will no longer be at the opposite extreme. Crushed balls to right center will be reaching the seats.

“There are not going to be cheap home runs at Petco Park,” says Josh Stein, the Padres Director of Baseball Operations, who has studied the way Petco Park plays for nine seasons and helped contour the new dimensions.

“These changes will not change the way the Padres play baseball. We did try to study intended consequences as well as unintended consequences.”

But the changes will tweak the way the game is played in ways other than the home run.

With the fences in by 10 feet in right, right-center and left-center, the right fielder and center fielder will probably play slighty shallower. There could be fewer singles. And with the distance to both power alleys being shortened, there will be fewer triples.

“A lot of triples will be either a double or a home run,” said Stein. “Triples will get back to being speed triples. Hitters with average speed aren’t going to reach third just because the ball keeps rolling. We did look at how many singles we would lose.”

How many home runs the changes will produce is open to speculation. The Padres are keeping their projections to themselves. Best guess, around 10 percent more. But, as Stein says, “there is no way to specifically look at every ball.”

There were 109 home runs hit at Petco Park last season, with the opposition accounting for 62. If the total increases by 10 percent, that would be 120 homers at Petco Park next season. There were 174 homers hit in Padres road games last season.

Many fans believe shortening the fences will favor the opposition because visiting teams have more power hitters than the Padres. Truth is, visiting teams have annually out-homered the Padres at Petco Park.

I see shortening the fences as a net positive. Petco Park weighed negatively on the Padres in several areas. And there could be fewer “boring” games for fans to complain about.

At most, a visiting player would play nine games a season at Petco Park. Most would play only three. Their frustrations with the place would soon be forgotten. Padres hitters spent 81 games a season watching drives die. Ask Phil Nevin, Ryan Klesko, Adrian Gonzalez, Brian Giles, Ryan Ludwick, et al, what they thought about the place.

The place got into people’s heads – to the point that word spread. Few hitters wanted to call Petco Park home.

The shortening of the fences might help the psyche of current Padres while opening the door for the courtship of future hitters. No free agent hitter with an eye toward their next contract was going to move to the “old” Petco Park under their own free will.

So, what about the pitchers who so loved the spaciousness and atmospheric conditions at Petco Park? The same reason why the Padres couldn’t sign hitters is why pitchers trying to rebuild their careers flocked to the place.

“It will still be a pitcher’s park,” said Padres general manager Josh Byrnes.

“Pitchers and fielders will adapt to the playing conditions,” said Stein.

As for the other major change announced last week, the visiting bullpen should never have been on the field. Then Padres general manager Kevin Towers believed it placed visiting teams at a disadvantage. He was probably right. But there was a safety issue with having the bullpen mounds just outside the right field foul line.

Arizona report

Right fielder Rymer Liriano is hitting .333 (12-for-36) with two homers and six RBI in the Arizona Fall League. Liriano also has two doubles and four stolen bases with 10 runs scored.

Jeudy Valdez, who has moved from short to second in the AFL, is hitting .323 (10-for-31) with five doubles, a triple and a home run. Second baseman Cory Spangenberg is 4-for-14 and first baseman Nate Freiman is hitting .279 (12-for-43) with a homer.

Right-handed closer Kevin Quackenbush has four saves and has yet to allow a run or a hit in six, one-inning appearances. He has given up two walks with nine strikeouts.

Left-hander Robbie Erlin has allowed two runs on five hits and two walks with nine strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings over three starts. Right-handed reliever Matt Stites has allowed two runs on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings in six appearances. Left-handed reliever Josh Spence has allowed a run on three hits and three walks in four innings.